#and jc’s upset isn’t who he got the sports car from because he wants the sports car

[mxtxfanatic]

The funny thing about that scene is that Jiang Cheng is actually said to have questioned the truth of Wei Wuxian’s tale multiple times since he agreed to getting a new core. Even on the walk up to “Baoshan Sanren’s” mountain, he is still questioning if Wei Wuxian is lying to him. He knows that the tale is too fantastical to be true, but he is also afraid to dig more into it because he really wants a new golden core. Even way back in the Yi City arc, we are told that it is fantastical thinking to believe that even a sage like Baoshan Sanren can regrow limbs and organs out of thin air and that the only way to replace them is through donation. Even if Jiang Cheng believes that Wei Wuxian remembers Baoshan Sanren’s location (he doesn’t), he definitely doesn’t believe her capable of pulling a golden core from nothing. But all of this is really not the point, because Jiang Cheng is not bothered by where he gets his core from. He’s not even really bothered by who he gets it from. He’s bothered by what it says about him, his actions, and the specter of his “righteous fury” that Wei Wuxian did this for him in secret, and was willing to die with this secret despite Jiang Cheng having killed him once already.

“Just how much do you owe the Jiang Sect? Am I not supposed to hate you? Can I not hate you?! Why is it that now it’s like I’m supposed to have wronged you?! Why do I have to feel like I’m a fucking clown all these years?! What am I? Do I deserve to be blinded by all your dazzling splendor?! Am I not supposed to hate you?!”

—Chapt. 102, exr

This is what Jiang Cheng is bothered by. He is not bothered that he was lied to about Baoshan Sanren’s magically abilities because he was lied to, he is bothered by the realization that the people he hinged his entire life’s resentment and adulthood personality on are the very people who willingly and selflessly saved his life. He is bothered by the fact that he owed more life debts than he knew, that he couldn’t outsource to something else (like he did when he completely ignored the fact that Wen Ning returned his parents’ bodies to him). He isn’t in Guanyin Temple crying about how Wei Wuxian could bear to lie to him; he is crying about how dare Wei Wuxian’s ultimate act of selflessness make Jiang Cheng’s over a decade-long public grudge look like the tantrums of a clown. By his own design.

If we’re really being honest, Jiang Cheng has no issue relying on Wei Wuxian when he can outsource his gratitude to someone/-thing else. Despite the fact that he is knowingly relying on Wei Wuxian for a golden core, knowingly stealing Wei Wuxian’s favor to get a new golden core (in his mind), the person who “really” did anything was “Baoshan Sanren,” so Wei Wuxian can be neatly cut out of the list of people he “has to” feel gratitude towards. Knowing that it wasn’t Baoshan Sanren, that it was actually two “Wen-dogs” and the “son of a servant” that lived up to his clan’s motto better than him? THAT’S the insult.

"Jiang Cheng should have been allowed informed consent".

He did. As in he was informed he'd receive a core regardless and accepted. Also his issue was never about the harm it would cause to Wei Wuxian or the loss it would be for Wei Wuxian. It was compounded that he did owe grace to Wei Wuxian for what he had done for Jiang Cheng. Let's also stop omitting that Jiang Cheng was set on committing suicide by starving himself because he could no longer cultivate in direct contrast to Wei Wuxian reasoning that he was simply giving back what he had been given by the Jiang Clan anyways by giving his core that was developed with their methods.

The only reason he is upset about anything to do with that situation is that once again he did and always had relied on what Wei Wuxian said and did for him while constantly calling Wei Wuxian ungrateful.